Mitt Romney Video Demonstrates Media Hypocrisy

Ronald Kessler reporting from Washington, D.C. — A new video showing Mitt Romney telling donors he will never convince those who are dependent on the government to vote for him demonstrates only one thing: When Romney tells the truth, the press will crucify him for it. When President Obama prevaricates, the press will ignore it.

In the video, Romney says, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what.”

He goes on, “There are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to healthcare, to food, to housing, to you name it.”

Romney says in the video his role “is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

As Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus says, Romney was right on message. While obviously generalizing, Romney was accursedly summarizing the split between voters who are against him and those who are for him.

In general, Democrats like to hand out goodies from the government and vote for those who will keep the goodies flowing. Republicans want to shrink the size of government and emphasize free enterprise. Romney did not address the fact that others who are not benefiting from government handouts and do pay taxes may also vote for Obama.

Yet many in the media went ballistic, heralding the video as a possible tipping point in the presidential campaign. On the other hand, when Obama said the Supreme Court cannot overrule a law passed by Congress, the press let the comment pass without pouncing on him.

As noted in my story, "Obama Campaign Is Founded on Myths," Obama routinely dissembles about Romney and the Republican Party. Obama claimed that because his mother had a pre-existing condition, she died of cancer without health insurance coverage.

As it turns out, that was a pure invention to win support for passage of his healthcare legislation. So too was Obama’s claim that he watched at his mother’s side as she suffered the disease without being insured.

“I remember just being heartbroken,” he said in a 2007 campaign appearance, “seeing her struggle.”

According to correspondence unearthed by Janny Scott, a New York Times writer and author of the book, “A Singular Woman: The Untold Story of Barack Obama’s Mother,” Ann Dunham’s cancer treatments were fully covered by her employer’s insurance policy. She was turned down for disability insurance because of a pre-existing condition.

Moreover, Obama had not seen his mother for months when she died in a Honolulu hospital in 1995, according to Scott’s book and to friends interviewed by The Washington Post. Her son was in Chicago, planning a run for an Illinois state Senate seat. He did not go to see his mother until a day after she died on Nov. 7, 1995.

The disparity between Obama’s words and his actions goes back to the healthcare bill. He claimed no one would lose their existing coverage. It turns out that was more hocus-pocus. A McKinsey & Co. survey found that nearly a third of private-sector employers say they will discontinue covering their employees with health insurance because of the rising cost imposed by Obama’s healthcare legislation.

The press downplays Obama’s dissembling and treats almost any truthful Romney utterance as a gaffe. In the same way, the media portrayed Ronald Reagan as a bumbling idiot. Yet it was Reagan who won the presidency by 10 percentage points over Jimmy Carter.

As they did with Reagan, the American people will see through the press’ hypocrisy and vote Romney into office come Nov. 6.

Ronald Kessler is chief Washington correspondent of Newsmax.com. He is the New York Times best-selling author of books on the Secret Service, FBI, and CIA. Read more reports from Ronald Kessler — Click Here Now.

Ronald Kessler reporting from Washington, D.C. — A new video showing Mitt Romney telling donors he will never convince those who are dependent on the government to vote for him demonstrates only one thing: When Romney tells the truth, the press will crucify him for it.